This is the third installment of So You Want to Launch A Brand? Why You Should Start Now and we will discuss some tactical aspects of a brand launching including basic Point of Sales Material (POS), Presentation, and Insurance. The next installment will cover Distribution strategy and Execution as well as a recap of the three part timeline.
Let’s start with Point of Sale and Presentation.
Point of Sale Material and Presentation
Now that your name has been chosen, your logo and label has been developed and the FDA attorney has approved your label, it is time to start working on developing your point of sale material and distributor or key account presentation. Point of sales should be seen as a “silent salesperson” informing the consumer about your product when you can’t be there to do so.
There are a few very basic, standard point of sale needs today:
- Product Sell Sheet with UPC Codes and specifications. Understand that consumers will never see this sell sheet. Your customer here is your distributor or key account. Your distributor and key accounts have a lot of criteria for buying a new product, but, at the end of the day, they both want to know how much money they can make from selling your product! Make sure your headline and graphics grab attention (must key into your USP) and tells them they can make money by selling your product. More often than not, brands develop their sell sheets with a focus on the consumer. Consumers will never see this item.
- PowerPoint Presentation. Every brand needs a 10-12 page presentation showing their USP, features, benefits, bridge (the bridge links features and benefits together and explains what this means to the buyer), planned marketing activity including social media and events, trade show participation, and any category or brand data you can find. You can usually find a lot of this beverage for free or very little using a google search or at Bevnet.com, Beverage Industry or Zenith International. If necessary, and if you budget allows, you can purchase data at Beverage Marketing Corporation, IRI, Nielsen, SPINS and others.
- Cold Box sticker. If you are looking for distribution in refrigerators you should have a stick that you can put on the glass door of the refrigerator promoting your product.
It takes the average consumer 3-5 seconds to make a buying decision. Your point of sale material is a silent sales person when you are not in the store.
7Channel strip. A channel strip is a piece of laminated plastic that fits into the channel of the retailer’s shelf and promotes your brand.
Wobbler. Wobblers is also a piece of plastic that goes into the retailers’ shelf but wobbles as people walk by and the breeze makes them move.
Display Unit. If you are looking for non-refrigerated distribution, you should consider having a limited amount of display units that you can give retailers to display your product.
One thing to note is that not all stores allow point of sale material to be placed in their stores.
All things being equal, it should take about 2 weeks to design these items and about 2 more weeks for a printer to print these items. The PowerPoint presentation might take a little more time to create and make look great.
Liability Insurance
Now that your product is being developed and hopefully ready to produce commercially soon, you need to purchase Liability Insurance. Large supermarket and natural supermarket chains will require you to have between $2 million and $5 million of product liability insurance. Otherwise they won’t buy from you. An insurance broker will give you a questionnaire to fill out and your rates will depend, in part, on your answers. You need to know how to fill out the form properly. Let’s assume this process takes 3 weeks from start to finish.
Cascadia Managing Brands is a strategy, brand management and sales execution firm that helps startups succeed. In this bi-weekly series Bill Sipper, Managing Partner, shares his insights on:
Brand Positioning and Logo and Label Development
Intellectual Property and FDA Compliance
Future articles will discuss:
Brand Positioning and Logo and Label Development
Intellectual Property and FDA Compliance
Point of Sale Material and Presentation
Liability Insurance
Distribution Strategy
Sales Execution
Overall Timeline